Sparky's the One on the Bike
Here's another great story from one of my mom's oldest and closest friends,
Cheryl Vogel. Thanks and keep em' coming!
Back when I worked with Carol at Eagle, we shared a long desk and a lot of laughs.
We each had a bulletin board above our desk. On Carol’s hung pictures of young Michael and Chris and on mine was a picture of my husband Kenny on his motorcycle and our dog at the time , Sparky, sitting on the ground next to the bike.
Sometime around the holidays we were hanging lights and ornaments around our desk when a salesman came in. Carol, being Carol, struck up a conversation with him and asked for his help with hanging the lights so she and I would not have to stand on our desks.
As he made his way around to help us he looked at the pictures on our boards.
Carol wasted no time in proudly pointing to her pictures and telling him,
“These are my sons, Michael and Christopher.”
She then pointed to mine and stated “That’s Cheryl’s husband Kenny
and her dog Sparky.”
When the salesman gave no initial reaction, Carol then added,
“Sparky’s the one on the bike.”
More silence as the salesman processed this and after a good minute went by, the man inhaled deeply and made a sound that I can only liken to a foghorn.
Carol and I looked at each other as he continued to repeat the sound over and over, and our first thought was that there must be something wrong with him, and maybe he’s in pain. When we figured out he was laughing, albeit like a deranged Barge ship, we became hysterical with laughter, buckled over with tears streaming down our faces.
Once he left, all Carol would talk about is how she hoped we didn’t hurt his feelings because he was such a nice guy.
That alone is a testament to Carol’s genuine concern for the feelings of others – she didn’t have a mean bone in her body. But she found humor in everything. If there was anything hilarious and unexpected to happen, it would always seem to happen when Carol was around.
Cheryl Vogel
